A whale washes up on the beach near to Chilcombe Estate in Dorset and twelve-year-old Christobel plants a flag and claims it as her own. From birth she’s largely been ignored, having to educate herself using books, plays and help from Maudie, her maid. When her siblings Flossie and Digby come along, they spend their time in the attic, creating their own plays and stories. The bones of the whale become their theatre, a place where they can dress up and become other people and soon they are putting on productions for their village to great acclaim.


But when the Second World War breaks out the three Seagrave children find themselves having to decide how their own stories will play out.


The first half of this novel entranced me completely. The quirky and unique cast of characters were wonderful, from the strong-willed Christabel to the enigmatic Russian artist Tarras. The dialogue was superb, oftentimes making me laugh out loud and the whole setting of the crumbling estate full of adults more interested in parties and sex than the children was so well done. For a debut novel the writing is so accomplished and confident, with the prose interlaced with diary entries and newspaper cuttings.


Unfortunately the second half of the novel let it down for me. As the children grew into adults the real world crept in and the Second World War erupted. This is entirely a personal reaction as I just don’t like books set around this war and this is essentially what it became. Other people won’t have this problem and will love the latter part of this book equally if not more.


This isn’t to say I thought it was in any way a bad book. It wasn’t. Even if I didn’t enjoy the storyline I still appreciated the writing and storytelling and would certainly recommend it to any historical fiction fans. And I still bought the hardback because firstly, the cover is stunning and secondly, I could re-read the first half over and over because I so loved spending time with Christabel, Flossie and Digby.

The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
Cristabel Seagrave has always wanted her life to be a story, but there are no girls in the books in her dusty family library. For an unwanted orphan who grows into an unmarriageable young woman, there is no place at all for her in a traditional English manor.

But from the day that a whale washes up on the beach at the Chilcombe estate in Dorset, and twelve-year-old Cristabel plants her flag and claims it as her own, she is determined to do things differently.

With her step-parents blithely distracted by their endless party guests, Cristabel and her siblings, Flossie and Digby, scratch together an education from the plays they read in their freezing attic, drunken conversations eavesdropped through oak-panelled doors, and the esoteric lessons of Maudie their maid.

But as the children grow to adulthood and war approaches, jolting their lives on to very different tracks, it becomes clear that the roles they are expected to play are no longer those they want. As they find themselves drawn into the conflict, they must each find a way to write their own story...


This is a massive book following a family from 1919 to the end of the Second World War. It has been compared to The Cazelet Chronicles, the chamomile lawn and the Mitford books and while am in no doubt that these influenced the author, sadly the comparison doesn't match up to the novel. Although the story from the outbreak of WW2 moves at a cracking pace, the earlier parts of the novel ( especially those centring on the irritating Rosalind and Willoughby) are too drawn out. The children are the interesting thing alongside the house which is quite a character itself. I didn't quite understand why the theatre was so big in the novel, and I felt much could have been edited out.

Of all the characters I liked Flossie and Maudie the best, they seemed deeply sympathetic whereas Christabel and Digby were assuming in their upper middle class way that they were destined for greater things. It may have been my mood when I read this but they didn't engage me in the same way as Flossie and Maudie. So, whilst I loved much of this debut novel I didn't love all of it.

I feel this is an author to watch though and it was by no means bad. It just could have been better!
I am grateful for my ARC of this novel.

A great historical fiction debut that reminded me of the Cazalet Chronicles. Christabel is a wonderful character and I really enjoyed the slower pace of the first half which meant we got to really know the characters inside and out. I thoroughly enjoyed the different stories of the siblings especially once the war had started and the dilemmas and expectations each of them faced. The Seagrove family were a delight to read about!

A great family epic.

I loved this story from about 3 pages in. From meeting Christabel I fell instantly in love with her character- meeting her new mum, but really not caring just acting as usual - fiercely determined to conquer all and take everyone along with her.

There is only one word for her, which is fierce!

The story revolves around her, bringing her whalebone theatre to glorious life as a youngster, then heading off on new adventures, until heading back to her home to start anew.

It’s a big book, and the story needs all the pages, it’s just absorbing and utterly wonderful.

My thanks to Netgalley and Penguin General UK - Fig Tree, Hamish Hamilton, Viking, Penguin Life, Penguin Business for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review

What a debut! Joanna Quinn has written a wonderful book which starts just after the end of the First World War and finishes at the end of the Second World War. Cristabel is the lead character in this production and she has a great cast of characters on stage with her.as she grows up through what is a feisty and feminist childhood. I am a great fan of WW2 fiction so the long section devoted to those years was perfect for me. I was very impressed with Ms Quinn's writing style whch changes to suit the scene and makes for a very engaging and interesting read. I highly recommend this book to thouse who enjoy a good saga with plenty going on and a satisfying ending. With thanks to NetGalley, the publishers and the author for the opportunity to read and review an e-ARC of this book.

This is a very evocative read perfectly conjuring up the years after the First World War and into the Second World War. There are beautifully created characters, full of idiosyncrasies and eccentricities.

The novel is a kind of coming of age and beyond for Christabel, Flossie and Digby. They are three children left very much to their own devices, growing up on a decaying family estate in Dorset. Theatre, drama and books provide fuel for their adventures. Their characters grow and change as they face different roles in a world at war.

Beautifully written with strands of humour and pathos I was entertained and invested throughout.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I very much enjoyed this debut novel by Joanna Quinn, which thoroughly appealed to me as a fan of the Cazalet Chronicles, The Chamomile Lawn, and The Children’s Book. It absolutely has all the ingredients of a great family saga, and I fell in love with all the characters, particularly Christabel and darling Veg.

Although I enjoyed the first half of the book, I did find it a little long in places and I kept putting the book down and picking it up again. Once the war started and Christabel’s spying began I could not put it down, reading the second half of the book in one go, into the early hours of the morning. I loved the juxtaposition of the lazy, languorous pre-war section with the absolutely nail-biting tale of spy-school and dangerous missions in enemy territory.

Beautifully drawn characters, a crumbling family pile, Bohemian artists and a theatre made of whale bones - what’s not to love?

The Whalebone Theatre is a historical fiction novel which follows the adventures of the irrepressible Christabel Seagrave, and her siblings Flossie and Digby, as they struggle to make sense of ever-changing family dynamics and the world around them.

Christabel is such a wonderful character – so full of life, emotion, heart. The beginning of the book is slow and very character driven, but she pulls you in with her joie de vivre and her refusal to fit within feminine stereotypes. She is too big for the restrictive world she resides within, but rejects the gender roles she is expected to conform too. Her enthusiasm infects all those around her, and manifests in the arrival of Taras, a revolutionary artist who turns the Seagrave world upside down and shows her that there is more to life than the Seagrave mansion.

Flossie – affectionately nicknamed The Veg – is a very different character. Placid to Christa’s passionate; malleable to Christa’s rigid; soft to Christa’s hard edges; quiet to Christa’s noise; calm to Christa's chaos.

Digby is the much wanted and much-loved brother – Christa’s faithful sidekick, who confidently follows her into every situation with an understated and misunderstood bravery and becomes the star of her theatre shows, much to his war hero father’s disgust.

The arrival of World War Two brings terror, hurt and death to the people of Europe, but it is within these incredibly difficult circumstances that the siblings come into their own, finding a freedom, both physical and emotional, that they would not have had chance to discover previously. Gender stereotypes are challenged, and taboo relationships are formed.

The book was slow to start, but really came into its own when the war began, and I was completely engrossed in Crista’s world. I loved all three of the siblings and rejoiced as they began to show their own personalities, breaking free of the expectations of the upper class. Although the life of the upper classes is shown as incredibly easy physically compared to their servants, this book really shows the emotional toil that these expectations leave on the people within the families with little space for individuality.

Special mention goes to Maudie and Leon, who play a small role without, but who both had me smiling and who I’d love to go for a drink with!

This would have been a four star read as I really enjoyed it once it got going, but unfortunately I struggled with the first few chapters and nearly put it down, so I have given it three stars as I think the beginning may put people off.

A beautifully written family saga set over 20 years from just after the First World War to the end of the Second World War. Hard to believe it’s a debut novel as it comes across as a very assured piece of writing. I normally avoid historical war novels as there are so many of them out there but this stands apart. Look forward to reading more from Joanna Quinn!

A beautifully written novel about the dysfunctional Seagrove family, with the irrepressible Christabel as its main focus. She is a strong, no-nonsense girl right from the first page, when she is all of three years old. She is the gang leader as she and her two not-quite siblings grow and learn to cope with, and in spite of, their inadequate parents. A long, slow, but never boring, novel, we watch them grow into adulthood during the second world war, each of them blossoming into unique individuals, successful in their own rights. Full of laughter and tears, comedy and tragedy, I loved it.

This wonderful book was an epic historical adventure featuring vivid characters that just jump out of the page - I’ll be thinking about them for a long time.

The first half of the story has all the colour of the 1920s and had me grinning all the way through. We’re introduced to the ironic trio of (almost) siblings that is Cristabel, Flossie/“the Veg”, and Digby. The close relationship between them feels so real and the way they’re often left to their own devices by their parents allows them to have so many delightful romps and daring adventures! It almost reminded me of something like Swallows and Amazons.

All of this is set against their upper class parents, their decadent parties and their various eccentric acquaintances, who the children bring together along with the brilliant household staff to put on these ambitious summer productions in their very own creation, the Whalebone Theatre.

Then WWII breaks out and we follow the siblings - now grown up - and their different experiences of wartime. I’ve read about the underground Allied spy network in France before and found it just as fascinating this time around. It was also lovely to see the other characters blossoming through their hard work on the Home Front, despite all the horrors they were going through. There were some beautiful hints of wartime romance in there too.

What I loved best was how the three siblings contributed to the war effort in such different ways, but even when apart you could still feel their connection to each other. It was an emotional ride of a story and by the end I came to care so much for the characters that felt like they were part of my family too!

A stunning read. Thank you to NetGalley and Fig Tree Penguin for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Usually I'm not one for books that are set in the past. However, this one sounded interesting and I wasn't disappointed. I loved this book so much.
Christabel is living in a big stately home as a three year old when we join the story. She's amazing, precocious, fierce and independent. She's soon joined by Flossie and Digby. They live a life formed by stories and imagination.
Starting in the 1920s as a reader you know what's approaching from the horizon. It was interesting to see how each character reacted and was shaped by their war experiences.
I loved all the characters, not just the three children but all of those around them.
I felt the story was also an original perspective and something that I'd not really read before.

A debut novel and I thought a good one albeit I found it a bit long and wordy and do think it might have benefited from a bit of editorial ‘chopping’. That said it was a well researched and well put together family saga of the Seagraves who live in Dorset on their Chilcombe estate, covering the period from the 1920s through to the end of WWII. The detail in the book is really good and you can believe yourself transported to their world as it is so well written and beautifully descriptive.

Briefly, orphaned Cristabel is begrudgingly given a home by her stepmother when her father dies. When her siblings, Digby and Florence, are old enough the three children spend much of their time together giving Cristabel the family she desired and allowing her to produce their amateur theatricals. But as they grow up and start dreaming of their future Britain declares war and their childhood is soon left behind.

Although I enjoyed the story I did find it a bit too slow paced, particularly in the middle parts of the book. There were parts of the book I really loved, Cristabel’s whalebone theatre and the comparison with the theatre in Paris. The descriptions of the hedonistic and bohemian lifestyle of the adult Seagraves. And the lives of the adult ‘children’ during the war. A good, if long, historical family saga and an author to watch. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I absolutely adored this captivating story of life between the wars by a ver unique family and the wartime activities of the now-grown children. It’s quite long but I wanted more, and loved spending Time with Christabel, Flossie and Digby. The story is a marvellous tale of wartime espionage and a tale of finding out who your true self is despite social conventions. The characters are well drawn and leap from the page and there’s is a real sense of place. This is a thoughtful tale with real depth.

This book begins on the last day of 1919 as Cristabel Seagrave, aged 3, claims a dead, beached whale as her own. A strong-willed child (to say the least) with a somewhat unpleasant, ineffectual nanny running along behind her, she goes her own way. Cristabel or Christa can run wild in her rambling ancestral home, Chilcombe, in Dorset as she’s a girl and not the heir to it all. Jasper, her father, wants an heir and has brought his new bride, Crista’s stepmother, home. Rosalind is a woman who wants to be married and not ‘left on the shelf’. So many ‘surplus women’ as they were unflatteringly known after World War I. There is no other choice for women of her class.
But it’s destined to be a doomed marriage. Jasper’s courtship consists of him presenting her ‘with historical facts in the way a cat continually brings its owner dead mice.’ They have another little girl who is commonly known as ‘the Veg’ as she is said to resemble one. Jasper still grieves for his first wife, the love of his life, Annabel, who died in childbirth with Crista. After having too much to drink, he mounts his horse and then, when she accidentally steps into a rabbit hole, he is thrown off and dies from his injuries. Rosalind then has a son, Digby, but with Jasper’s much younger and more rakish brother, Willoughby who she marries rather quickly. He is the favourite, the survivor after so many of his mother’s miscarriages.
The stage is then set for the roaring ‘20’s and the ‘Bright Young Things’ and soon Chilcombe is filled with the entourage of an artist, Taras Kovalsky. The three children watch their antics as they move into a cottage on the Chilcombe estate and call the children ‘the savages.’
And Crista creates a theatre on the estate. She persuades everyone; locals, servants, the artists, Taras’ family to join in and give performances. There is a chapter devoted to local press clippings from the 1930’s reviewing their shows. The whale is also part of it with its rib bones forming the theatre space, hence the book’s title.
But the stormclouds of the Second World War are gathering and the Seagrave children, now adults, will be swept up in it and their lives changed forever.
This is a debut novel and is a family saga. But it felt like a book of two halves. The first half is about the lives of the Seagrave children between the wars as they grow up and then their lives during the war and its aftermath. I thought that the author really captured the decline of large English country houses after the First World War when so many men didn’t return and so their posts remained vacant with no one to fill them. Also, the status of upper class women who were educated, after a fashion, had to wait around to become a debutante and be presented at court and then have to find a husband. As Crista reflects ‘English girls of her class were designed to be removed from their homes by a husband; unremoved girls were a waste of resources.’
Crista was a character who needed a purpose. She found it, firstly, with the theatre and then in the war when she becomes part of ‘Special Operations’. However, I found it difficult to visualise the three Seagrave children. Rosalind never really came alive for me and when she died in a bombing raid, she had already faded out of the plot. Willoughby seemed to just vanish from the narrative with a character saying vaguely that he ‘was in Ireland’. The character I felt most empathy with was Jasper as he poignantly consulted a professed gypsy fortune teller at the seaside and desperately tried to contact Annabel.
This was a book that had echoes of other books. In particular, Mary Wesley’s ‘The Camomile Lawn’ and also ‘Brideshead Revisited’. The pace really slowed in some parts especially when the artist appeared but picked up a lot in the second half. I enjoyed the first half much more with the 3 children running wild at Chilcombe. The reader also shares the intermittent diary of one of the youngest housemaids, Maudie Kitcat, as part of the narrative.
I loved the author’s descriptions of the landscape and nature, and the book really came alive for me in these passages. The whalebones forming the theatre space was a very striking visual image and there was an element of it being Crista’s sacred space. The description of the Hunter’s Moon and the wartime sweetpeas winding their way up the whalebones a lovely image.
Ultimately, this book wasn’t for me as I did feel that it reminded me too much of other books in a similar vein.
However, if you’re a fan of family sagas, this could be the book for you.

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

The Times described Joanna Quinn's debut novel 'The Whalebone Theatre' as luxurious, and I would absolutely agree. Set amid the world wars, Quinn has written a very funny and poignant coming of age story that is rich with atmosphere and detail.

Christabel Seagrave, is the orphaned child of Jasper, the original heir to Chilcombe, and his beloved wife Annabel. However, circumstances mean she is treated as 'lucky to be allowed to stay' by her father's widow Rosalind and her uncle Willoughby. Both of these adults pursue hedonism at all costs and pay very little attention to Christabel, Flossie (her half sister) and Digby (the son of Rosalind and Willoughby and the new heir to Chilcombe). As a result they are free to engage in a fantasy life, encouraged by the arrival of a Russian Artist and his entourage. However, things change when they grow up and are forced to tackle a world outside of Chilcombe, one that is made all the more dangerous by World War II.

This is a very accomplished novel that really draws the reader into the Chilcombe world. Whilst the hedonism is compelling it always feel dangerous, particularly as it is bookended by wars and by Jasper's dogged attempts to try to keep the house going, despite mounting debts. I particularly loved the way Quinn tackled the different characters, so that they were multifaceted and complex rather than caricatures, and their motivations for things gradually became apparent over the course of the novel. I would definitely recommend this to others.

Dorset author Joanna Quinn has produced a very strong debut here. Her depiction of the Seagrave family between 1919 and 1945 is full of wonderful moments. The manor house at Chilcombe, a village which actually exists 10 miles from Dorchester (last estimated population in 2013 was 10!) is lovingly created and provides the central focus although the action splinters to other locations during the war years this house is the lifeblood for this novel.
A great favourite of mine is Dodie Smith’s “I Capture The Castle” (1949) and I am regularly tempted by works which aim to get the feel of that novel, with its memorable characters, excellent set-pieces and its superb balance of being heart-warming, funny and poignant within a family setting. Get this balance slightly off and it shows and I tend to end up not really responding positively but Joanna Quinn, whether this is an explicit aim or not, gets the feel of this type of novel beautifully and the first half was a thing of sheer of joy which I loved reading. At the mid-way point I thought I’d got a strong contender for my Book of The Year. From the outbreak of war, when the characters inevitably leave to play their part, I felt it slipped into more standard fare, which I still very much enjoyed but for me the sheer magic of the first half was not sustained.
Playing a part is an important theme to this novel. Fish out of water Christabel is a toddler when her father arrives at Chilcombe with a new wife and the family dynamics further change in time leaving Christabel very much an outsider. Her life changes when the corpse of an errant whale washes up on the beach. With younger siblings and others originally encountered on the beach where the whale lies dead Christabel develops a theatre on Seagrove land using the whale bones in its construction. The theatre where friends and family all have a part to play brings Christabel into the fold. This “Swish Of The Curtain” aspect gives this novel a vitality and the notion of the theatre simmers away in Christabel’s heart when war takes her far away from Chilcombe.
The war sees these memorable characters involved at home and overseas- some slip away at this point and have little part to play in future proceedings but others develop a stronger focus. Looking at my review of “I Capture The Castle” I also say that it is a book of two halves, with the first half more captivating for me than the second. I’d actually forgotten about that when I read “The Whalebone Theatre” and even when I began writing this review but it’s interesting (for me anyway) that I felt the same way about a book I just can’t help comparing this to.
It is a splendid debut and this was enriched for me by the Dorset location, as a newcomer to the County myself I loved the references to places I have so recently visited and the mentions of my new home town in an earlier part of its history. This book will charm and thrill many readers and could be a very pleasing commercial as well as critical success.
The Whalebone Theatre is published in the UK by Penguin on June 9th. Many thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for the advance review copy.

This is a wonderfully moving, beautifully drawn sweeping family saga that covers the time around the two world wars, centred around Cristabel Seagrave , a motherless girl who is both the subject and the agent of much of the story.

There is something marvellously familiar about the story, touches of Brideshead Revisited and I Capture the Castle that puts you in a landscape you understand immediately. This works as a setting for Joanna Quinn to then tell her own stories upfront, and the mass of individually realised characters is a joy to read.

A great summer read, the story of Cristabel and her family and friends will stay with you beyond the last page.

I’m sorry, but after reading 10% and still being told I had over 10 hours of reading left, coupled with not much happening, I gave up reading this book. It just wasn’t for me!

The Whalebone Theatre is a sweeping family saga which spans a childhood in the 1920s for Cristabel, Flossie and Digby in the crumbling Seagrave family manor house, Chilcombe, on the Dorset coast. With dysfunctional parenting, from a selection of parents, successive governesses, maids and cooks, the trio forge an unbreakable bond and enjoy writing and performing plays in which the whole household become involved. When World War II breaks out Digby enlists and Cristabel desperately wants to follow in his footsteps, while Flossie joins the Land Army. When both Digby and Cristabel, unknown to each other, join the secret service and become part of the French resistance that is when we really see the action ramp up. While the titular Whalebone Theatre doesn’t feature as much as some might expect, I felt it was also used as a metaphor. This is not a genre of writing I would normally read but I was completely absorbed by the astonishing prose, especially from a debut author, and the colourful characters who peopled the story. An immensely satisfying read. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin for the eARC.